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Manchester City were defeated 3-0 by Premier League champions Arsenal in the Community Shield on Sunday afternoon in Cardiff. Here are our top-five takes from a disappointing afternoon in South Wales. Goals from Riccardo Calafiori, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard allowed the Gunners to win their 18th Community Shield, with the Italian full-back opening the scoring after just 23 seconds, giving Enzo Maresca the worst possible start to his competitive tenure. Calafiori was played through after a sublime ball from Myles Lewis-Skelly opened up Manchester City’s defence, and the defender sent his Italian counterpart Gianluigi Donnarumma the wrong way to put the ball in the back of the net. New signing Christos Tzolis then set up Havertz who headed downwards, with Donnarumma struggling to keep the ball from reaching the net, doubling Arsenal’s lead before the half hour mark. Manchester City then had a couple of chances at the other end but Arsenal kept them out; Erling Haaland’s strike inside the penalty area saved by David Raya, followed by Ben White getting in front of Jeremy Doku’s effort a few minutes later. Three minutes into the second-half, Arsenal got their third when Odegaard calmly sat down Donnarumma before slotting into an empty left side of the goal, handing a hugely disappointing start to Enzo Maresca’s reign at the Etihad club. Interestingly, the last team to win the Community Shield and then go on to win the Premier League was Manchester City back in the 2018/19 season, with the Sky Blues having now lost 10 such outings and winning seven. Looking back on the opening competitive fixture of the 2026/27 season, here are Five Things We Learned from Manchester City's 3-0 defeat to the Premier League champions in South Wales. 1. A tough watch for Enzo Maresca Succeeding a 10-year tenure from Pep Guardiola was never going to be straight forward, and a 3-0 loss in your first competitive match for your new club is never a positive thing for anyone. The performance shown by Manchester City was simply not up to standard. In pre-season we have seen glimpses of brilliance particularly in wide areas, with Antoine Semenyo showing how effective he can be from left-wing, but that same output from wide areas was not there for the Blues. All in all, Arsenal were the better side and got their reward, superior to City in every department. I don’t believe the performance is anything to seriously worry about, especially considering players returning from their later rest period due to the World Cup only resumed training on Wednesday. Erling Haaland, Nico O’Reilly, and Elliot Anderson all started, and were subsequently brought off before the hour. Manchester City’s first Premier League match at home to Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon will be easier to judge how the season could be, and just how much more work Enzo Maresca has to do - perhaps in the remaining two weeks of the summer transfer window. 2. Was selling James Trafford the right decision? James Trafford’s £40 million move to Leeds United has sparked plenty of debate between Manchester City fans as to whether we would regret it. The 23-year-old has made an impressive start in pre-season for his new side, particularly showcasing distribution qualities. Gianluigi Donnarumma, on the other hand, has been fairly susceptible to being poor with the ball at his feet, but makes up for it with his incredible shot-stopping ability. However, against Arsenal, that shot-stopping ability was nowhere to be seen. All three of Arsenal goals felt like they might have been preventable, but that’s the way football is sometimes. It’s not the first time Donnarumma has had a poor shot-stopping performance, either. That said, the Italian goalkeeper is still arguably one of the best in his position in the world and Sunday's defeat in South Wales just seemed like a bad day at the office. I’m sure his form will return. 3. Elliot Anderson struggles on debut The England international's £116 million move to the club this summer has been a topic of discussion throughout the Premier League, and the 23-year-old struggled to make an impact in his first match for Manchester City. Like anything with this match, in my opinion there’s not anything to worry about or make judgement on. As I mentioned before, Anderson only started training himself on Wednesday and hadn’t even really had the chance to click with his teammates yet. We’ll have to wait and see what he’s capable of, but there’s no doubt he’s incredibly talented. It’s also hard to make judgement based off of one game, so only time will tell if he has what it takes to be an elite player - which I have no doubt that he does. 4. More work to be done in the transfer window! Elliot Anderson has been Manchester City’s only major signing so far in this window, and with a fair few key players already left or seemingly on their way out, there’s still plenty of work needed. Barcelona inevitably agreed a £65.4 million deal for Rodri across the weekend, which will leave a massive hole in the midfield to fill. City have reportedly turned their attention to Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez, with Enzo Maresca looking to reunite with the Argentine. Manchester City are also reportedly close to a deal for Lille’s highly-rated 18-year-old midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi, and Tijjani Reijnders is on his way out to Saudi Arabian side Al Qadsiah. If Savinho leaves the club for Tottenham as well, then it’s likely that Manchester City will look for a winger to replace him, with Pedro Neto mentioned in various quarters. With two weeks to go until the window closes, I’d expect the Blues to be very busy. 5. Foden simply not up to scratch. Phil Foden had a poor performance against Arsenal, and it feels as though this is a big season coming up for him. The 26-year-old hasn’t been able to replicate his exceptional form in the 2023/24 season that saw him win the PFA Player of the Year award. It’s frustrating sometimes because it’s visible that he has the quality and he has shown it, but hasn’t shown it consistently enough in the past two seasons. Having been left out of Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad with England in the summer, it felt like a real chance for Phil Foden to kick on and use that as a bit of fuel to prove any critics wrong. That may still be the case but there haven’t been any glimpses of that so far in pre season. It’ll be interesting to see how Foden performs under Enzo Maresca, with Pep Guardiola being the only person he’s been managed by at club level. He will know Maresca’s preferences to some degree due to the Italian’s time at the club as assistant manager in the 2022/23 treble winning season. Either way, a big season ahead for the midfielder.